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Why I love property 

Property offers everyone freedom. 



Freedom from long-term debt, freedom from paying someone else’s mortgage and freedom from being tied down. It can create a modest income all on its own while you travel the world, fall in love with another property or just fancy nurturing more than 1 property at a time.



Of course you will have heard of lots of people having negative equity in their property’s, or building companies going bust because they have borrowed too much from the bank.



I am not talking about taking huge risks I am talking about building your own personal property portfolio which will look after itself and you for the rest of your life if you get it right.

A friend once said that it was easy for me not to worry about money because I always had my family to fall back on. She was misguided - the reason I wasn’t worried about my financial future was because I had property to fall back on.



Property offers you choice and independence.



Planning
All it takes is a bit of foresight, passion for property and some good planning. You may well want to travel the world and live off the grid after university and before you start your career. But who is going to pay for it?

You can’t rely on your parents and to be honest why should they be paying for you?



So look at it this way if you worked and saved after university for 18 – 24 months you could be putting a deposit down on your first home at just 24 or 25 years old. You aren’t Justin Bieber but you are already ahead of the game.



Property Roadmap
1. Put your budget down on a simple spreadsheet – include all costs like student loans, rent, food, entertainment, holidays and transport.
2. The example below displays an easy monthly tracking sheet.

 

Penis Fruit

3. Highlighted in yellow are your flexible savings – you could decide that you don’t use these each month so that you can add these to your property savings account. In addition you can review your rent cost and potentially reduce this.



4. Hidden costs always crop up throughout the year so don’t beat yourself up when this happens. As you are now a regular saver you will have the funds to cover these unforeseen costs from time to time.


5. Meet with a personal banker and discuss your savings plan. Find out how much you could borrow and what size of a deposit you would need.


6. Research and learn about mortgages and interest rates now so that when it comes to purchasing a house it doesn’t feel like such a big step. You will be prepared and have the confidence in your own knowledge – this will also help motivate you towards your savings goal.


7. Go out and look at a few properties.


8. Identify what your 1st property should be.


9. Prioritize what your essentials are – to ensure you maximize value on your first property you should be considering doing some limited cosmetic work and ensuring the location is desirable for your target market.


10. Research areas you want to live in and areas around these, which could increase in value over the next 5 years.



Get started and get saving for your first property

It costs nothing to get involved with property other than time and effort gathering the knowledge to make sure you are on the right track to purchase.



Good luck and leave no stone unturned – you can view hundreds of properties online before you even pick up the phone to arrange a viewing.



Research, research, research is the key.



Keep reading...

1. Borrowing power calculator - how much can i borrow?

2. 1st Home saver - where do I start with saving?

3. 7 habits of a super saver - use these to get you underway.

By Ashleigh Cotterill, June 2013

1MUM Managing Director - Ashleigh Cotterill
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